In Another Mare's Horseshoes
by Nightwings81
Summary: When Twilight Sparkle's new teleportation spell goes horribly awry, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie find themselves switching bodies. Now they must keep the accident a secret until Twilight can fix them-but will their friends be able to tell the difference?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:**

A single cloud hovered in the air above Ponyville. Fluffy and white, it sat in brilliant contrast against the bright blue sky like a pouf of white cotton—until a pale blue shape suddenly exploded through its center, smashing the cloud into dozens of smaller pieces, which quickly dissipated and vanished into nothing.

The young pegasus mare paused in the air long enough to shake stray strands of cloud from her rainbow-colored mane, then spun a graceful loop-de-loop before landing on one of the dirt roads in the center of town. Flicking her equally colorful tail back and forth, she looked up to survey her work and smiled.

"Not a cloud and the sky and all before noon! Not a bad morning's work," she congratulated herself as she trotted down the street. "Now to dig up some breakfast."

Stomach growling hungrily, she steered towards the local bakery, following the delicious aroma of cookies, cupcakes, and brownies that wafted through the air. She was just passing the town's library tree when the door flew open and a lavender unicorn stepped outside.

"Rainbow Dash! Just the pony I was hoping to see!"

"Oh, hey, Twilight. How's it going?" Rainbow Dash stopped and waved to one of her best friends. "I was just heading over to Sugarcube Corner for a cinnamon bun. Wanna come?"

"Actually, I was sort of hoping you could help me with a little experiment I'm working on. I need another volunteer."

"An experiment? Oh, well…" Rainbow lifted a hoof uncertainly as her stomach rumbled again, this time loudly enough to make Twilight Sparkle raise her eyebrows. "Sorry about that. See, I _totally_ would help, but I'm really hungry right now…I didn't get any breakfast and I've spent half the morning clearing away this huge patch of clouds."

Twilight's purple eyes brightened. "I can fix that! Pinkie Pie brought over a big box of muffins when she came—there's no way we can eat them all by ourselves."

Rainbow cocked her head to the side. "Pinkie's _here?_" That changed things. Only Pinkie Pie thought to put aside a cinnamon bun for her, knowing she craved something sugary after a long shift of weather management. If Pinkie wasn't at the bakery, then the buns were probably all gone by now.

"Yes, she's inside." Twilight answered, turning slightly and gesturing to the library door. "She's my other volunteer. _Please,_ Rainbow! It won't take long, and you'd be absolutely perfect!"

The pegasus beamed at this compliment and promptly trotted into the library. "Well, since you put it _that_ way. I guess a muffin is as good as a cinnamon bun."

Twilight followed her inside, capering at her heels. "Thank you, Rainbow! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She threw herself at the pegasus, hugging her exuberantly. "This is going to be fun, I promise."

"Uh, you're welcome." Rainbow chuckled nervously and gently wriggled free of the hug, running a hoof over her disheveled mane. "So, what do you want me to do? Will there be flying involved?" Her magenta eyes glowed at the mention of her favorite pastime. "Or do you need me to do some of my awesome aerial stunts?"

"Not exactly…here, come with me." Twilight Sparkle hung the We're Closed sign on the door and led Rainbow Dash into one of the back rooms. "You actually won't have to do much of anything—I'm working on a teleportation spell, so all you and Pinkie will need to do is stand where I tell you."

Rainbow paused. "That's it? Standing where you tell me? _That's_ what I'd be perfect for?"

"Yes. Exactly." Twilight circled back and gave the pegasus a push with her head, but the winged pony playfully planted her hooves and held her ground. "Come on, Rainbow—this is going to be great. It's a totally new piece of magic for me and you get to be a part of it!" She shoved harder, actually lifting Rainbow's hindquarters in the air and forcing her to flap her wings to keep from toppling forward. Rainbow Dash finally relented with giggle and trotted into the room Twilight had prepared for her spell, looking around curiously.

The unicorn had pushed the reading tables against the walls, except for one that held a large and dusty book, a mortar and pestle, and a piece of chalk. A vividly pink earth pony with wildly curling hair was standing on her hind legs at the table and curiously sniffing a small pile of herbs beside the mortar.

"Hey, Pinkie Pie," Rainbow Dash greeted.

The pink pony whirled around with a huge smile, her blue eyes shining. "Hi, Dashie! Are you gonna help Twilight with her experiment too? This is really exciting! Don't you think this is exciting? I think it's exciting! I've never been a part of an experiment before—well, except for that time when Twilight was trying to figure out how my Pinkie Sense works, but that one didn't work because nopony knows why my tail goes twitcha-twitch sometimes." As she spoke, she bounced energetically around the unicorn and pegasus, who watched her with mingled looks of affection and amusement. Both were well used to Pinkie Pie's random outbursts and perkiness.

"Yeah, it sounds like fun," Rainbow replied, homing in on the one part of the speech that she actually understood. She suddenly spotted a pink cardboard box resting on another table and flew over to it. The sweet scent of blueberry muffins made her mouth water.

"Help yourself, Rainbow," Twilight called. "I have a few things to set up first." A dark pink glow enveloped her horn, magically dropping the herbs into the mortar and lifting the pestle to grind them into a fine powder.

Rainbow Dash selected a large muffin and took a big bite before fluttering back to Twilight's table and watching the unicorn work.

"So what's so special about this spell, Twilight?" she asked, licking brown sugar crumble from her lips. "We've all seen you teleport before. Lots of unicorns can do it."

"Sure…I can teleport myself just fine, but nopony else," Twilight said, her nose now buried avidly in her book. "The one time I took Spike with me he ended up kind of…singed. And this one is different. This time, I won't be teleporting _myself_ at all. See, I found this really old spell that allows a unicorn to remain stationary while teleporting _other _ponies and I'm pretty sure I can handle it."

"Oh!" Rainbow glanced at Pinkie Pie. "That sounds pretty cool. I've never been teleported before."

"Me neither!" Pinkie agreed. "I wonder what it feels like. Do you think it tickles?"

"Don't know," Rainbow replied, now intrigued by the prospect of helping with the experiment. Knowing that it hadn't been attempted for a very long time stirred her sense of adventure. "But Twilight's teleported herself tons of times, and she never said anything about it hurting, right, Twilight?"

"Hmm?" Twilight still had her nose stuck in the book and hadn't been paying attention to her friends. She glanced up to find them both looking at her expectantly. "Sorry, what was that?"

"What does teleporting feel like?" Pinkie asked while Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"Oh, it's kind of hard to explain. It can make you a little loopy sometimes, but it doesn't hurt though."

"Unless you're Spike," Rainbow pointed out. She laughed when Twilight glared at her and shrugged. "I'm just saying…singed and all."

"Well, that one was unexpected. And it will not happen this time." Twilight turned the page in her book, scanning the print closely. "Okay, I've got it. Here we go!" Using her magic to levitate the piece of chalk, she carefully drew two circles on the wooden floor, one on each side of the room, and connected them with a series of small hash marks. When that was done, she sprinkled a small amount of the herbal powder along the lines, then pointed her horn at them. The herbs suddenly ignited in a sharp flash of greenish light, making the chalk lines glow faintly.

"You never do that when _you_ teleport," Rainbow Dash observed, wrinkling her nose as the acrid smell of burnt herbs filled the room.

"This is a completely different process. Don't worry, these are just safeguards. They're to help guide the path until I get used to the spell. Rainbow…why don't you go first?"

"Me?" Rainbow coughed and flapped her wings to blow away the lingering fumes. "But I thought you were going to try both of us. Isn't that why you needed _two_ volunteers?"

"I will…but this is not an easy spell, so I think it's best if I start off small. I'll teleport you one at a time first, then we'll move up to both once I've got the hang of it."

"Oh, okay. Makes sense, I guess. What do you want me to do then?"

Twilight pointed at the circle on the right side of the room. "Stand in that circle there." Obediently, Rainbow trotted to the center of the circle and stood, watching her friend expectantly. "Now I'm going to try moving you to the other circle. I'm not sure how the actual journey will affect a pony who isn't a unicorn so you might feel a little disoriented at first. You ready?"

The pegasus took a deep breath and gave her wings a quick flutter, then nodded firmly. "Ready!"

Twilight Sparkle pointed her horn at her friend and closed her eyes to concentrate. In her mind's eye, she pictured a sphere of light surrounding Rainbow Dash and moving her from one circle to the other instantaneously. As she focused on the image, the air around her friend began to shimmer, then waver as though it had become a heat mirage.

"Ooh! Look at that! Can you see it, Dashie! The air is going all wobbly! Can you feel it? Do you feel different? Why does the spell do that, Twilight? Does that mean it's working? Are we going to see her disappear soon?"

Pinkie Pie's loud, perky voice broke through Twilight's concentration, snapping her hold on the spell. She yelped, startled, and the sphere of energy that had begun to form around Rainbow Dash fizzled out with a tiny _pop_. Not sure what to expect, the pegasus gasped and ducked, covering her head with her hooves.

"Hey, what happened?" Pinkie Pie asked, oblivious to what she had just done. "It didn't work! Did you see that, Twilight? The spell didn't work!"

Twilight blew her bangs from her face impatiently. "That's because you distracted me!" she said sternly. "I need to _concentrate_ in order to do this right, Pinkie, and I can't concentrate with you asking me a hundred questions."

"Oh." The earth pony's face fell slightly. "Sorry."

Rainbow Dash got to her feet and dusted herself off. "Hey, Pinkie Pie?" she called.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe you should save the questions for a time when Twilight isn't about to try a brand new spell out on me, okay? I don't want her turning me into some kind of frog or gopher or something."

"A gopher! I would never do that," Twilight protested. "That's a completely different kind of spell!" She glared at Rainbow Dash who stared back, deadpan, until the unicorn laughed weakly. "Oh, you were joking, weren't you?"

The pegasus snickered. "Ya think?"

"Very funny…okay, let's try this again."

Pinkie Pie put her hooves on the table and nodded eagerly. "Yeah! And I promise I won't make a peep! You won't even know I'm here. I'll be quiet as an itty bitty, fuzzy wuzzy, little grey mousie who's all sleepy and tired and ready for a nice, long—"

"Pinkie Pie!" Rainbow shouted.

"Oops!" Giggling, Pinkie plopped onto her haunches and mimed zipping her muzzle shut.

"Ready?" Twilight asked Rainbow again.

"As I'll ever be. Fire away!"

Twilight centered herself and focused on the spell. The air began to waver around Rainbow Dash again, like ripples on the surface of a pond. The winged pony stared through the shimmer to her two friends, her eyes wide. Suddenly, her light blue form flickered, vanishing for a brief instant before reappearing. Pinkie Pie gasped, immediately clasping her hooves to her mouth to mute the sound. Rainbow Dash flickered in and out of sight three times in quick succession, then disappeared completely from the circle.

"She's gone!" Pinkie exclaimed, unable to contain herself any longer. "It worked! It did work, right? Where'd she go?"

"_Over_ _here_, _guys!_"

Twilight and Pinkie turned in unison to see Rainbow Dash grinning and waving at them from the second circle.

"Whoo hoo! It worked!" Pinkie Pie sang. She leapt to her hooves and bounced over to Rainbow, a very relieved Twilight Sparkle close on her heels.

"Thank Celestia it worked!" Twilight exclaimed. "Are you okay? How do you feel? Tell me everything!"

Rainbow Dash laughed and jumped into a nimble back flip. "Great! It was a little weird, but it didn't hurt or anything. It kinda felt like something pulled me through a cold wind and then tossed me into this…I don't know…blankness. I couldn't see or hear anything, but I felt like I was spinning really fast, like when I do barrel rolls." She pranced out of the circle and turned about with her wings raised triumphantly. "See? Awesome as ever. Not a hair or feather out of place."

"Yes!" Twilight leapt in the air and started bouncing as erratically as Pinkie Pie. "I did it! I did it! Yes, yes, yes, yes!"

"Now me! It's my turn!" Pinkie Pie hopped into the left circle and danced about. "Teleport me!"

"Yeah, I gotta see this!" Rainbow Dash flew to the table where she had left the remainder of her muffin and sat down to watch the spell.

"Okay. Just a second—I have to take a few notes first. First thing in a proper experiment is well organized notes." Twilight used her magic to enchant a quill into writing several paragraphs on a piece of parchment. "Let's see…cold breeze, no sensory stimuli, general feeling of spinning or tumbling…there. Alright, one pegasus down, one earth pony to go!" Twilight dropped the quill and faced Pinkie Pie. Pointing her horn at the circle, she began to concentrate, picturing the earth pony switching from one circle to the other. The wavering, ripple-like air appeared again, faster this time now that the young unicorn was familiar with the spell. Pinkie's eyes went wider than Rainbow's as she felt the magic start to take affect and her mouth opened in an O of surprise before she winked out of sight.

Twilight and Rainbow immediately looked to their right, turning in time to see the air briefly flicker before Pinkie Pie appeared. Unlike Rainbow Dash, the earth pony had landed on her back and neck, her legs kicking in the air, her blue eyes spinning rapidly in her head.

"Oh no!" Twilight breathed. She and Rainbow rushed to their friend, turning her over and helping her sit up. She wobbled unsteadily back and forth. "Pinkie, talk to me…are you alright?"

"D-d-dizzy!" Her eyes continued to roll about, even when Rainbow Dash held her head steady between her front hooves. For a few seconds, she looked like she was going to be sick and the others hastily backed away. Instead, she clamped her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths. When she opened them again, her gaze was clear once more. She giggled and beamed ecstatically. "That was _so_ much fun! Let's do it again!"

"Y-you're okay?" Twilight sounded uncertain.

"Sure!" Pinkie burbled. "It was neat. One minute I was watching you both watch me watching you and then the next I was spinning around and around like this! Whoo, whoo, whoo!" She tucked her legs in and rolled across the floor, bumping up against the table. Standing, she pointed towards the ceiling. "Only I was going through this really super big, huge, enormous dark space."

"Yeah, that's just what I felt," Rainbow announced. "It was pretty cool."

"It's more than just cool!" Twilight said, grinning from ear to ear. "Do you girls know what this means?"

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie exchanged glances, both raising their eyebrows simultaneously.

"Uh…entertainment?" Rainbow hazarded to guess.

"Yeah! Now lots of ponies can go loop-de-loopy through the air and get all dizzy!"

"No! Think about how _useful_ it could be? What if I'd known this spell when that napping dragon had threatened Ponyville with all its smoke? Instead of all of us hiking up the mountain, I could have just teleported us all there and saved so much time. Or when Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and I got chased by that hydra…we almost didn't get away, but if I had known how to teleport the four of us at once…"

"True," Rainbow admitted. "Not to mention the cost of train tickets will really go down once ponies realize they can just get teleported somewhere." She tapped her chin thoughtfully with a hoof. "But all that will only work if you can move more than one of us at a time. Maybe we should see if you can blip two ponies at once before we really start to celebrate."

"Blip! Haha, that's a funny word…but it's so true. It kinda felt like we _blipped_, didn't we? Hey! You should use that as the name of the spell! We can call it the Twilight Blip."

Twilight laughed and jotted down her notes on Pinkie's experience on her parchment. "That would certainly make it stand out in the magic manuals…but Rainbow's right. We should see if I really can do it before I name anything after myself. This next part is slightly harder, but I'm pretty sure I can handle it. Are you two ready or do you need more time, Pinkie?"

"I'm good! Let's try that again!" Pinkie Pie cantered to the right circle and jumped over the chalk and herb line. "It was fun!"

"Rainbow?"

"I'm on it." Rainbow finished the rest of her muffin in two quick bites and flew to the circle, landing beside Pinkie Pie and folding her wings at her sides. "This is gonna be so cool…" She raised her eyebrows and grinned cheekily at the unicorn. "_If_ you can pull it off, that is."

"Prepare to be amazed!" Twilight took a second to check her book again, flipping back and forth between the two pages of the spell and frowning slightly before pushing the tome aside. "Two ponies at once. This is so exciting!" Her eyes closed as the pink aura of her magic suffused her horn. The complexity of this spell made her brow furrow deeply and, as the seconds passed, she gritted her teeth to stay in control of the strong magics she was channeling. A tiny groan escaped her, but at that moment the air finally began to waver and ripple around Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

Once again, Rainbow experienced the odd sensation of being lifted by something other than her wings and tossed through a cold breeze before entering that plain of nothingness. Her balance and equilibrium, so good in assisting her on her aerial maneuvers, were completely thrown off as the library vanished around her and she spun through a void of black as helplessly as a butterfly caught in a tornado. Though she couldn't hear or feel or even see anything, she was vaguely aware of something else tumbling along with her, a rosy pink presence against the darkness…and then she was smacking hard against the unyielding wooden floor of the library in a tangled flurry of eight legs, two tails, two wings, and a high-pitched giggle.

"Ow!" Rainbow Dash blew a bright pink tail out of her face and wriggled out from beneath Pinkie, whose eyes were spinning wildly again. Levering herself into a sitting position, the pegasus rubbed the side of her head where it smarted from hitting the floor. "That was a _rough_ landing." At a joyful squeal, she looked up to see Twilight jumping up and down ecstatically, and realized she was now on the other side of the room.

Pinkie Pie sat up beside her, wobbling unsteadily, and ruefully massaged her rump. "Ooh, that hurt! What did I land on?"

"Me." Rainbow Dash stood and stretched her back, wincing a little as it popped.

"Are you girls alright?" Twilight approached, somehow managing to look concerned despite the huge smile on her face.

"I think so—though I've hit mountains with less force than we hit the floor." Rainbow dusted herself off, spread her wings to inspect the feathers, and gave her tail a flick, then looked from the circle beneath her hooves to the one on the other side of the room. "Aww, yeah!" She held up a hoof to Twilight. "You did it! Two ponies at once!"

Giggling giddily, Twilight slapped hooves with her, then let out a startled _eep_ when Pinkie Pie wrapped one leg around her neck and the other around Rainbow's, dragging them into a crushing group hug that clacked their heads together.

"Hooray!" she cheered. "I _knew_ you could do it, Twilight! I just knew it!" Her eyes went enormously wide as she drew in a huge gasp and hugged her friends even tighter, oblivious to their flailing limbs and gasping protests as they both tried to escape her choking embrace. "We really need to celebrate now!" Twilight wobbled off balance when she abruptly released them both and leapt away. Rainbow Dash snapped her wings open, catching herself and the unicorn as Pinkie continued, "We should have a party!"

"You know, that's not a bad idea." Rainbow pushed Twilight upright again and titled her head thoughtfully. "And we haven't had a good Pinkie party in awhile…it's been what, four, five days?"

"Try six!" Pinkie said in exasperation. "And I have been _trying_ to come up with a reason for one but it's been so _boring_ lately. I was even thinking of throwing a Break the Boredom party, but this will be _so_ much better! Ooh! I'd better go get everything ready!" She turned to bounce from the room, but was stopped by Twilight's hesitant voice.

"Actually…before you do that, there was one more thing I was hoping to try."

The perky pink pony paused to peer at her pal in puzzlement. "What's that?"

"Well…" Twilight dragged a hoof nervously across the floor. "Now that I know I can do _this_, I think I can take it a step further."

"How?" Rainbow wanted to know.

"I have this idea for tweaking the spell a bit. It would be a really amazing piece of magic if I can get it to work, and it one would be _my_ spell, something I came up with all by myself. I could get my name into all the big spell books, and maybe even get to teach a class, and unicorn ponies all around Equestria would be able to use a spell that I have invented and—"

"Yeah," Dash interrupted, her voice taking on a hint of sarcasm. "We get it. It would be awesome! But what will it _do?_"

Twilight pressed her hooves against her snout as she looked at them, her body trembling slightly in her excitement. "I want to…" she said quietly, then finished in a frantic rush, "_try_ _teleporting_ _two_ _ponies_ _at_ _the_ _same_ _time_."

Her two test subjects looked at one another in confusion and stepped closer to their friend.

"Uh, you didn't get oxygen deprived when Pinkie hugged you, did you, Twilight? Cuz…you kinda just did that."

"Uh huh! That's _why_ we're gonna throw you a super duper, amazing, spectacular, fabulous spell congratulations party!" Pinkie Pie flung her forelegs wide, somehow creating a loud bang and a shower of colorful confetti out of nowhere. Rainbow Dash jumped, her mane standing straight up in fright, and gave the earth pony a withering look.

"No, you see, um…I want to try teleporting two ponies at the same time…but to and from different places." Shaking paper streamers from her navy blue mane, the scholarly young unicorn trotted to one of the circles and pointed to it. "I want to try sending you from here, Rainbow," she said, now pointing to the circle on the far side of the room, "to there, while at the same time I send Pinkie Pie from _there_ to here. As far as I know, it's never been done before. But with just a few minor adjustments to the spell, I really think I can make it happen." She turned to beam at her friends, but the smile slowly fell from her face when she realized that, instead of looking intrigued by the prospect, they both seemed uncertain. "What? Doesn't that sound amazing?"

"Yeeaah," Rainbow Dash said hesitantly. "It sounds…uh, awesome…but are you sure you're up for something so…new? Maybe you should take a break."

"Break? I don't need a break."

"Really? Cuz that last spell seemed to take a lot out of you before it finally worked and, to tell you the truth…it took a lot out of us too." She rubbed a hoof through her mane and sighed. "I don't know, Twilight, a _known_ spell is one thing, but a made up one…"

Twilight frowned and looked to Pinkie Pie. "But, you want to help me out, don't you, Pinkie?"

"Um…" The pink pony's eyes darted from Twilight to Rainbow Dash and back again, her mane and tail drooping a little.

"Come on, Pinkie…it's fun, isn't it? You said yourself that you liked the spinning and flying around and that you'd do whatever you could to help me."

"You're right, I did say that!" Pinkie Pie's mane and tail poofed out again and she smiled, nodding brightly. "Okay!"

Rainbow Dash groaned and draped a hoof over her eyes as Twilight turned back to her with a smile.

"See? Pinkie's willing to try it, and I really need two ponies to work this spell."

Rainbow bit her lip, thinking about the strange void and the rough, unpredictable journey through it. It hadn't been so terrible the first time, but the second had definitely been harsher and even a little scary. She was certainly no stranger to taking crazy risks and getting herself into all manner of even crazier situations, but the teleportation spell had taken away all of her control in the few seconds it had taken to work and the young pegasus had not enjoyed that sense of helplessness. And she didn't like the idea of trying out a spell that had only just been invented.

"You know, maybe we can do it later, Twilight," she finally replied, turning to leave. "I promised Applejack that I would help her with something at Sweet Apple Acres today and—"

Twilight raced across the room, darting in front of the pegasus and blocking her from the exit. "Oh, well, that's okay," she said. "You help me with this and then I'll come out to the farm with you. I'm sure Applejack would be happy to have extra help. Pinkie, you'll come too, right?"

Pinkie Pie bobbed her head. "Mm hmm!"

"Okay…we'll all go out to help Applejack after we try the spell. It'll only take a few minutes."

"I don't know, Twilight. Have you even tried this _tweaked _spell of yours before? You know, on something simple like a book or a muffin?"

"Well, _that_ would be silly. It's a _pony_ teleportation spell, not a _muffin_ teleportation spell. It's only meant for moving ponies."

"So you haven't practiced it at all?"

"We just did, sort of. This is basically the same spell I just cast with only a few small changes." She pulled in a deep breath and put a pathetically pleading look on her face, lower lip trembling, ears drooping, eyes almost filling with tears. "_Please!_"

Rainbow Dash tossed her mane in exasperation. "Why's this so important to you? It's just a spell."

"No…it's _my_ first spell. All this time I've been learning spells invented by some other pony. This is the first time I've tried making one up myself. It's a completely new step in my magical training. Didn't you feel the same way when you went from just flying to doing aerial stunts and acrobatics?"

"Well, uh, I guess so, but…"

Desperate to convince her, Twilight switched angles and smirked at the pegasus. "Wait a minute…you're not _scared_ are you?"

"Huh!" Rainbow Dash snorted and took a step back, her eyes narrowing. "No!" she protested. "It's just that…"

"What? You do stuff like this every day? All of your wild and crazy routines. You never know how _they_ will turn out, but you still try them anyway."

"Yeah, but I _practice_ them first. Over and over. And that's _flying_. This is magic! It's different. All kinds of screwy things can happen with magic. Remember your spell with that doll?"

Twilight blushed darkly, her ears flattening against her head. "That was an accident. And, if you recall, I wasn't exactly thinking clearly that day."  
>"That's for sure!" Pinkie Pie, who had been watching the interchange silently until now, suddenly blurted. "You were going <em>crazy!<em> Your hair was all frizzy and you had that really creepy smile and—"

"I remember, Pinkie." Twilight quickly cut her off before the entire humilating incident could be acted out, then groaned in frustration, for Rainbow Dash had taken advantage of the distraction to fly over her head and was now trotting quickly for the door. "Oh, for the love of…" Steeling herself for possible repercussions, Twilight took a deep breath and called out, "But that's not the point. The point is…I never imagined that the great, brave _Rainbow_ _Dash_, who fought a manticore and kicked a dragon, would be scared of a little _magic_."

Pinkie Pie gasped and just as she had hoped, Rainbow came to a screeching halt, whirling around and flaring her wings indignantly. "I told you…I'm not scared! I just don't want to do it. And shouldn't you be grateful that I even came here to help you in the first place!"

"I am!" Twilight said, trotting up to the pegasus and giving her a quick nuzzle. "You've both been a great help so far."

"Well…" Rainbow Dash sniffed. "You sure have a strange way of showing it!"

"I…you're right." Twilight lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Rainbow," she said, looking at her friend from beneath her bangs. "I shouldn't have said that. It's just that I figured you'd _want_ to help, since you're one of my best, most _loyal_ friends ever."

"Hey! No fair bringing the Elements into this!"

"And just think of the bragging rights!" Twilight insisted, putting her hooves on Rainbow's shoulders and giving her a little shake. "Being one of the first ponies to ever try out this spell…one of only two ponies _brave_ enough to attempt it—why, the story would sweep all of Equestria…I'll bet even the Wonderbolts would hear about it and be amazed."

Rainbow Dash jerked away, sitting petulantly on her haunches and crossing her legs over her chest. "I _know_ what you're doing, Twilight," she said sulkily. A moment passed and then she dropped her head into her hooves with a sigh before getting to her feet. "And it worked. I'm in."

Twilight and Pinkie Pie both burst into cheers and hugged her tightly.

"You won't be sorry, Rainbow! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I knew I could count on you!"

"Yeah, well…you owe me one."

"Of course! I promise! Ooh, yay!" The unicorn squealed and pranced in a quick circle before settling down once again and becoming all business. "Okay, let's get started. Pinkie Pie, you're going to start in the left circle. Rainbow, you go and stand in the right."

"Oki doki loki!" Pinkie Pie paused long enough to pat Rainbow Dash on the mane. "Don't worry, Dashie. It's Twilight! We can trust her."

Rainbow Dash nodded, resigned. "Okay." She flew over to her designated circle, and stood inside the chalk line. Across the room, Pinkie Pie waved to her happily, her infectious glee making the pegasus smile. She relaxed her stance a bit and folded her wings lightly against her sides. Pinkie Pie was right. This was _Twilight_ they were working with. The _Element_ of _Magic_. A unicorn so skilled that even Princess Celestia had taken her on as a special student. What was there to worry about?

"Ready when you are, Twilight!" she called out.

Twilight took just enough time to turn to a blank page in her notebook and write the header Duel Teleportation/Different Locations, underlining the words dramatically before turning back to her test subjects.

With a deep, readying breath to calm herself, she concentrated on her modified spell, her horn glowing with the deep pink aura of her magic. As she focused and drew more power, the aura began to grow bigger and brighter, the light becoming painfully strong to the two ponies watching.

Rainbow Dash covered her eyes with a hoof to block the glare just as the air around her began the strange rippling effect that preceded the force that propelled her from the library and into the void. This time, however, it felt like she wasn't pulled so much as ripped off her hooves and flung forward into the emptiness. She tried to control her forward motion this time, but whatever power had her would not allow it. She could only tumble helplessly through the blackness, unable to feel or see or hear…until, up ahead, she caught sight of a delicate pink glow, shining like the sun through a thick layer of mist. The glow grew larger and larger, and Rainbow Dash realized it was moving towards her as quickly as she was moving towards it.

There was no sound in the void, so she couldn't tell if she screamed, but the blinding flash as she collided with the pink sphere of light certainly made her feel like screaming. The strange forward pull that she had felt before suddenly vanished, and she found herself spinning even more erratically before landing with an abrupt and jarring crash on the hard, but thankfully solid, floor of the library.

"Oh!" she moaned, rolling over onto her belly. "That's it! I'm done! That was the worst one yet." She sat up slowly, shaking her head to get rid of an annoying buzzing in her ears, and looked around. To her delight and relief, she was viewing the library room from the left side. It had worked!

"Whoo hoo!" she cheered, jumping to her hooves. A wave of dizziness rushed over her and she swayed woozily for a second, feeling oddly unbalanced. Laughing it off, she turned to Twilight Sparkle, only to find the unicorn staring at her with an expression both perplexed and forlorn.

"I don't get it," Twilight said quietly. "Why didn't it work?"

"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked her. "Of _course_ it worked. Granted, you really need to work on those landings a bit, but you _did_ it! This is so cool…we're gonna be famous!" She jabbed a hoof ecstatically into the air, but was answered with silence and a look of utter horror from Twilight Sparkle.

"Oh no…" the unicorn breathed, starting to prance rapidly in place. "Oh no! Oh no! What did I do!"

"Huh, what're you talking abo—" Rainbow Dash slowly lowered her hoof, catching sight of it for the first time. She blinked, then let her gaze drift up her leg and over her shoulder to her back and flank. Her eyes bulged and she let out a terrified squeal.

"What in the hay! I'm…I'm…pink!" She gaped at her pink pelt, her wingless back, her wildly curly tail, and her triple balloon cutie mark. "N-no!" she stammered. "I'm _Pinkie!_" Rainbow Dash's legs suddenly felt very weak and wobbly. Trembling, she dropped to her haunches and began to breathe in short, rapid breaths, rocking back and forth. "No! No! No! No! No!" she chanted. "This _can't_ be happening."

Shaking off her own shock, Twilight hurried to her friend's side. "Rainbow…it'll…uh, it'll be okay," she said, her own voice shaking. "You have to calm down. This is no time to panic!"

"Hahaha! _Wheee!_ Hey, guys!" A sky blue blur landed in front of them, rearing and pawing at the air. Iridescent blue wings flared out as what was unmistakably Pinkie Pie's voice spoke from Rainbow Dash's mouth. "Look at me! I've got wings! I can't wait to go outside and try them out!"

Rainbow Dash gaped at herself, then turned to stare at Twilight. The unicorn grinned and shrugged sheepishly.

"Okay…now you can panic."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

"What did you do! How in Celestia's name did this happen?" Rainbow Dash demanded. She whirled around and around in circles to gape at her new, pink, wingless body but still couldn't believe her eyes.

"Oh! I don't know. I don't know!" Twilight yelped. "I can't…I can't…would you hold _still_, Rainbow Dash—I can't think with you spinning around like that."

"I can't help it!" Rainbow forced herself to stop spinning and sat down. "I'm…I'm so…_pink!_" she wailed.

"I kinda like it!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "Look at me, everpony! I'm Rainbow Dash, the bravest, most awesomest, bestest flier in _all_ Equestria!" She jumped into the air and flapped Rainbow's wings, attempting to perform a backflip. A second later, she crashed to the floor with a loud thud.

Rainbow Dash winced. Though she hadn't actually felt it, it was still _her_ body that had fallen to the ground.

"Pinkie Pie, don't _do_ that! You don't know how to fly!" She hurried over to her friend and helped her up, then carefully ran her pink hooves over the disheveled blue feathers. "Aww, you bent one of my primaries!"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Pinkie was instantly contrite, hanging her sky blue head so that her mane fell over her blue eyes.

"Just be careful!" Rainbow admonished. She started to turn away, then paused and griped, "And I do _not_ sound like that!"

During this, Twilight had rushed back to the table and her book. She was rapidly flipping through the pages with her magic to find the ones containing the teleportation spell.

"How could it have gone so wrong? All the right components were there…it was just a tiny change…this shouldn't have happened…oh, what am I going to do!" she said in a rapid fire mantra, her eyes flicking over the script.

"You're gonna change us back!" Rainbow Dash announced, joining her at the table. "Now!"

"I'm trying! I just…just…" She looked up at her friend, shaking her head in awe. "It's amazing, really. I never imagined something like this could happen…you still _sound_ like Rainbow Dash, but everything about you is Pinkie…except…" She leaned closer, prompting Rainbow Dash to lean back nervously. The unicorn responded by grabbing Rainbow Dash's head between her hooves and staring intently at her face.

"What?" Rainbow demanded.

"Your eyes!"

"What about them?"

"They're still yours! The color, I mean."

"They are?" Rainbow looked around, but couldn't find a mirror to see for herself. Then she remembered her mane falling over Pinkie's eyes when the pony had apologized. Pinkie's _blue_ eyes. "Hey, Pinkie Pie, come here."

"Yeah?" Pinkie had been turning around and around, admiring her new wings and multi-colored tail, but she quickly bounced over to the table when called. Twilight snorted, then started to snicker.

Rainbow Dash gaped at her incredulously. "What's so funny?"

"It's just…I've never seen you, uh, _hop_ before." She covered her mouth with her hooves as she giggled. "I mean, not _you_, of course…it's Pinkie, but she looks like you and…" Her laughter fizzled away as Rainbow glared at her. "Of course, such a serious and, uh, _angry_ look on Pinkie…not quite as funny. Let's look for a way to turn you guys back."

"Yeah. Let's."

Twilight returned to her book, finding the page with the original teleportation spell. She tracked the words with her hoof as she read. "White chalk circles, yes; powdered lavender and willow bark, yes; I read the declensions properly and—hey!"

Rainbow Dash nudged her aside, rearing up to inspect the book herself. Her magenta eyes skimmed over the symbols inked in the pages even though she had no idea what she was looking for.

"What if it has nothing to do with what's written here?" she said. "_This_ spell seemed to work just fine. It only went wrong when you started messing around with it!" She glanced up at Twilight, but her eyes drifted past the unicorn to Pinkie Pie, who was hopping about in the middle of the floor and determinedly flapping her new wings, her neck stretched upwards as she tried to lift off the floor.

"Oh ponyfeathers," the former pegasus muttered. Leaving Twilight with the book, she trotted to Pinkie Pie, shaking her head in exasperation. "No, no, no! You're not gonna go anywhere like that!" She caught the hopping pony and forced her to hold still. "You're flapping them all over the place. You need to flap in unison—first, raise them up."

Pinkie Pie gaped at her, but quickly obeyed, lifting Rainbow's wings. "Like this?" she asked.

"Good enough…now you have to—"

"Oh no! Oh no…no, no, no!"

Rainbow and Pinkie Pie turned as one to see Twilight Sparkle slumped against the table, her purple eyes wide with horror.

"Twilight?" Pinkie asked. She exchanged glances with Rainbow and they stumbled over one another in their rush to get to the table.

"Did you find out what happened?" Rainbow asked as Pinkie gently patted the unicorn on the back. She looked at the ancient tome but could see nothing that would upset Twilight so much. "What is it?"

"The pages…th-they were _stuck together!_"

"What!"

Twilight showed them the slightly torn corners of the pages where she had just peeled them apart. "They must have gotten damp or moldy or something, but the pages were stuck together. I missed a whole page of the original spell."

There was a long moment of stunned silence as the two ponies digested this information, then Pinkie laughed.

"Really? How funny! And _this_ is what happened? Can you believe it? I did that once too. But it was a recipe book and I was baking chocolate chip cookies, only I ended up using half of the cookie recipe and half a recipe for potato pancakes so I made chocolate chip potato pancakes which you'd _think_ would taste good but really weren't very good and—"

Rainbow Dash clapped her hoof over Pinkie's mouth, silencing her, and glared at Twilight Sparkle.

"Stuck together?" she repeated, her voice dangerously calm. "They were _stuck_ together, and you didn't even notice?"

Twilight backed away from the angry pony, her ears flattening against her head miserably. "I, well, maybe I kinda noticed, um, wh-when I was reading over the spell. I thought, uh, you see, I thought that one of the lines sort of, um…it skipped abruptly when I turned to the next page and then the spell seemed a little different and…" As she spoke, the unicorn's voice became fainter and fainter, finally fading away into a high pitched squeak.

"Whoa!" Pinkie Pie ducked out from behind Rainbow's hoof and pointed at Twilight. "Did you hear that? The spell messed up _twice!_ Not only did it switch me and you, Dashie, but it switched Twilight with Fluttershy!"

"No," Rainbow Dash said impatiently. She began pacing back and forth, her eyes squeezed shut in pained exasperation. "Twilight didn't switch with Fluttershy—she just bullied us into trying a spell she's never done before and didn't even think to stop when she noticed something was wrong with it!"

"I-I didn't bully you," Twilight stammered weakly.

"What!" Rainbow stopped and stamped a hoof. "Are you kidding me?"

"Uh, you actually kinda did, Twilight," Pinkie said, giving her rainbow mane an unhappy shake. "You probably didn't _mean_ too, but Rainbow _did_ say that she didn't want to try your spell and you asked her to _please_ help you and then she said no again and so you said she was probably scared and she said that she wasn't and then you reminded her that she's the Element of Loyalty and that a loyal friend would help out a friend who really, really needs her!"

"What she said!" Rainbow readily agreed. "You _knew_ I didn't want to try the spell, but you refused to take no for an answer."

Twilight wilted visibly, slinking to the floor and burying her face in her hooves. "You're both right. I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I was just so excited and I really wanted it to work and…" She began to weep quietly, curling into a ball on the floor. "I didn't mean it. P-please don't hate me."

Rainbow Dash's anger deflated as quickly as one of Pinkie's balloons. Blinking in surprise, she said, "Whoa, wait a minute. Hate you? Who said we hate you? We don't hate you, Twilight!"

"Yeah, why would you think that?"

"Be-because of…well, isn't it obvious?"

"You mean this?" Pinkie waved a hoof at her light blue pelt and polychromatic mane.

"Well, _yes_, of course! I was mean to you both and I totally screwed up! Now you're mad and I wouldn't blame either one of you if you never wanted to talk to me ever again!"

With a sigh, Rainbow Dash folded her legs, lying on the floor to put herself eye to eye with Twilight. Gently, but firmly, she pushed the unicorn's hooves down from her face, forcing her to look at them.

"I'm not happy," she said with her usual bluntness, shaking her curly-maned head. "You're right about that. But that doesn't mean I hate you. It's a messed up spell, not the end of the world." She grinned wryly and propped her chin on a hoof. "You think all my stunts work perfectly the first time I try them? Where would I be if ponies started hating me every time I crashed through somepony's roof or wall?"

Twilight snickered despite herself and wiped her eyes.

"I g-guess so," she murmured.

"And it's not like you _deliberately_ tried to switch me with Pinkie."

"No! Definitely not."

"See? It was an accident." Pinkie Pie lowered her head and nuzzled Twilight's cheek. "Anypony can have an accident—like, there was this time when I was trying to make an eighteen layer chocolate cake with raspberry crème cake and pink and green frosting and sprinkles and little, tiny sugar statues of dancing ponies and—"

"Pinkie Pie."

"Oh, right, well, I had to move it from the bakery to the house where the party was and I made this really cool rolling cart by putting a table on a wagon, but I only got halfway there when I hit a bump and the _whole_ cake fell over and landed on this little filly." She paused for a moment, smiling brightly at the two confused ponies. When neither replied to her story, she rolled her eyes and continued, "Don't you guys _see?_ It was an _accident!_ I didn't _mean_ to knock over the cake, but as it turned out, what they had really wanted was a _raspberry_ cake with _chocolate_ crème so I was able to start over and make an even better cake than before and everything worked out!"

"Ooookay. "Rainbow tapped a hoof impatiently on the floor and forced a smile. "So, what I think Pinkie just said is accidents can happen but they can also be easily fixed. I'm sure if we find Spike and send a letter to Princess Celestia, she'll be able to give us a reversal spell in no ti—"

Twilight gasped and leapt up so unexpectedly that Rainbow jumped back with a yip and Pinkie's new wings flared open, flapping twice and lifting her a few inches off the ground.

"Huh?" She looked over her shoulder in puzzlement. "Why'd they do that?"

"Instinctive flight response," Dash told her absently. "Happens when pegasi get jumpy or angry." While Pinkie tried to get her wings under control again, Rainbow inched back to Twilight and tapped her on the shoulder. The unicorn's eyes had gone wide and she was breathing rapidly, on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Twilight?"

"We _can't_ go to the princess. She can't know that I did this or how badly I messed up!" Twilight reached up to grasp Rainbow by her pink shoulders, shaking her roughly. "After that fiasco with my Smarty Pants doll, she'd probably decide that I'm not fit to stay here in Ponyville. She'd be furious and make me return with her to Canterlot!"

"You don't know that," Pinkie said, abandoning her wings and looking oddly serious for once. "She didn't make you leave before. Dashie and I will just tell her that it was a mistake and—"

"No! Please, girls, we can't tell her. I…I don't want her to be disappointed with me. I can fix this myself—I know I can! Please, _please_ let me try!" Her eyes flooded with tears and she wrapped her hooves around Dash's neck, sobbing. At a complete loss, Rainbow Dash hugged her back, looking over to Pinkie Pie with her eyebrows raised in question.

"I-I guess we could hold off for a little while," she said after a moment. "If you really think you can come up with a spell to change us back."

Twilight sniffled and lifted her head. "R-really? You'd both do that for me?"

"Yeah!" Pinkie bubbled. "We don't want you to go back to Canterlot either!"

The purple unicorn hopped to her hooves, suddenly cheerful again. "Thank you, thank you! You two are the best! I won't let you down, I promise! I'm going to start looking for a counterspell right now!" She pranced back to the table, pausing long enough to look over her shoulder and smile gratefully at her two friends, then buried her head in the book to find out exactly what had gone wrong. "I suppose there's one thing we have to be thankful for—it couldn't possibly get any wor—"

"Rainbow Dash!"

All three ponies jumped and yelped in fright, whirling around to find Applejack glaring at them from the doorway. Twilight groaned softly and muttered under her breath, "I have really got to stop saying that."

"Just what in tarnation are you doin'?" the farm pony demanding, stomping her hoof against the floor. The three exchanged worried glances, wondering just how much Applejack had heard, but the pony's next words put them at ease. "You said you were gonna help me down at the farm today, and that you'd come by after breakfast because you knew Ah've got that school play thing for Applebloom this afternoon."

"Oh horseapples! I forgot!" Rainbow gasped. Applejack turned to her, looking confused, and the former pegasus remembered that she now looked like Pinkie Pie. She swallowed nervously as Applejack scrutinized her.

"Forgot what, Pinkie?" she asked. "You ain't shirkin' your duties like Rainbow here, are you?"

Rainbow felt a flare of indignation—that was completely unfair! She had fully intended to head over to Sweet Apple Acres after breakfast. It wasn't _her_ fault that she had been sidetracked. And now she couldn't even call Applejack on it without announcing Twilight's mistake. She was silently fuming when she realized Applejack was still staring at her, expecting an answer from Pinkie Pie.

"Oh! No, I'm not! I just forgot that Rainbow had asked me to remind her that she had to go to help you and all." She smiled weakly at the orange earth pony, who cocked her head in confusion.

"Y'all feelin' alright, Pinkie?" she asked after a long, tense moment of silence. "Cuz you sound like you're comin' down with a cold or somethin'."

"What? No…I-I'm…" She cleared her throat and continued in a perky falsetto. "I just had a piece of muffin in my throat. I'm good!" Knowing she had to convince Applejack that she was Pinkie, Rainbow shook her tail and forced a huge smile on her face, then started bouncing around her friend on all four hooves. "I saw Rainbow coming down after working _so_ hard to clear the sky of clouds and I thought that she must be really super hungry after all that _hard work_ so I got a _huge_ box of really yummy blueberry and chocolate and cinnamon muffins and then I realized that I'd brought too many and there was no _way_ Rainbow could eat so much and still stay so sleek and fit for all her awesome, one-of-a-kind flying stunts so that made me think that maybe Twilight was hungry too so we both came here and—" Her hoof caught against a slightly raised board and, unused to bouncing as a means of transportation, she crashed face first into the floor with a startled _oomph_.

"Whoa there!" Applejack laughed and stooped to help her up. "You okay, sugarcube? Ah do swear, Pinkie, you could trip over your own shadow."

The real Pinkie Pie grinned, her blue eyes shining from Rainbow Dash's face. "Yeah," she said, lowering her own voice to sound more like Rainbow Dash. "She is _so_ random!"

Twilight Sparkle suppressed a chuckle as the real Rainbow glared at Pinkie over Applejack's shoulder.

"You got that right!" Applejack said enthusiastically, looping a hoof around Rainbow's pink shoulders and rubbing the top of her head affectionately. "But she wouldn't be our Pinkie if the wasn't."

"She wouldn't be Pinkie alright," Rainbow muttered through clenched teeth.

"Well, Ah guess there's no harm done. We can still get lots of work done before Applebloom's show—which you're welcome to come to, of course. You all ready to go then, Rainbow?"

Pinkie Pie looked helplessly at Twilight Sparkle, who shrugged, unable to think of a reason "Rainbow Dash" should break her promise.

"Yeah, we're done," Pinkie said. "And I did say I would help you with your…uh…"

Grimacing, Rainbow reared up on her hind legs and waved one hoof up and down against the library wall. Pinkie watched her over Applejack's shoulder, but was completely perplexed.

"Stretching? I'm supposed to help you with your stretching. That's right, since it's always a good idea to stretch properly before you begin any strenuous activity like applebucking!"

Rainbow Dash facehoofed, groaning, as Applejack stared at the pony inhabiting her body as though she had gone insane.

"Stretchin'? What in the hay are you talkin' about, Rainbow? You didn't crash through a roof again, did you?"

"Um, not recently." Pinkie tried looking over the earth pony again, desperate for cues, but Applejack followed her gaze and turned just in time to see Rainbow Dash frantically miming again. Caught in the act, the pink pony smiled and forced a weak laugh, rubbing her hoof along the wall.

"You know, Twilight, I think this old library could sure do with a coat of _paint!_ Yep, some _paint_ would sure brighten this place up. Maybe we could throw you a _painting_ party and all get together to help you _paint_ the walls!"

Comprehension dawned in Pinkie's eyes just as Applejack nodded.

"That's a mighty good idea, Pinkie. In fact, that's _just_ what Rainbow's helpin' me with today. We're paintin' the inside of my new barn. If we get the rest of the girls together, we could get this place done in less than a day. Ah can bring over paint Ah have leftover—you probably even have a spell to change the color to whatever you want, doncha, Twi?"

Twilight nodded weakly. "Probably. I-I have spells for all kinds of things. A painting party would be fun."

"Well, you just let me know when and Ah'll be there. Ready to go, Rainbow?"

"Uh huh." With a nervous glance back at her two friends, Pinkie Pie followed Applejack out of the library, walking rather than flying.

"Phew!" Twilight wiped her forehead with a hoof. "For a second there I thought Applejack had seen right through you two. We got lucky, I suppose, though I wish Pinkie could have stayed here to try out any spells I find. I suppose it's up to us now." She turned to Rainbow Dash, but froze at the stricken expression that was so out of place on a face she normally associated with cheerful smiles.

"Rainbow? What's wrong?"

"AJ asked me to help her with the painting because her ladder broke the other day and they haven't been able to get it fixed yet and she has no way of reaching the high part of the walls." She hid her face in her hooves and groaned loudly. "She needed a pegasus, but she just got one who doesn't know how to fly!"

* * *

><p>Applejack walked briskly along the path through her orchard, curiously watching the blue pegasus prancing beside her. As long as she had known Rainbow Dash, the pony had never missed an opportunity to use her wings. She flew everywhere, even hovering indoors if the ceiling gave her enough room. Yet she had walked all the way from Ponyville to Sweet Apple Acres without a single flap or glide.<p>

"Thanks again for helping me today, Rainbow," the orange pony said.

Rainbow continued to trot along, humming to herself and watching a butterfly zigzag across the path.

"Uh, it's a real big help. Don't know what Ah'd do without you."

The pegasus continued to hum and prance happily, not acknowledging Applejack at all. The earth pony frowned, confused. Was Rainbow angry at her? Was she upset at having to help with the painting, because she had seemed happy to do it when Applejack had asked her a couple of days ago? Or maybe it was…

"Hey, RD, sorry Ah was teasin' you back at Twi's. You know Ah was just joshin' you, right?"

Rainbow finally glanced her way, her eyes widening as she gasped. "Oh, right, me…uh, I mean, it's okay, AJ, I know you didn't mean anything by it."

"Yeah, that's right…um, are you feelin' okay, Rainbow? You seem a little bit—"

"I'm fine! Fine and dandy. See?" Rainbow paused and hunkered down, biting on her lip, then leapt into the air and tried to flip backwards. Applejack had seen her do it a hundred times before, but this time her legs flew about all akimbo and her wings didn't seem to know when to flap. She made half a turn, then tried to spiral sideways before collapsing onto her face in the dust.

"Rainbow!" Applejack gasped and hurried to her side, but the pegasus was already jumping up, shaking out her mussed mane and giggling wildly.

"Whoops! I…uh, _meant _to do that. Yeah, I meant to do that!"

"Really?" Applejack tilted her head and raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Sure! It's, uh, a new trick I'm working on. Haven't got all the bugs out of it yet. Needs more practice." She shrugged unconcernedly. "Wanna race?"

"Race? Now, Rainbow, are you sure you're—"

"Onyourmarkgetsetgo!"

Rainbow took off, leaving a very confused Applejack standing in a cloud of dust. Shaking her head in bewilderment, the cowpony leapt after her and galloped down the lane. Rainbow was acting a mite strange, but that didn't mean she was going to let her win.

* * *

><p>"This is a disaster!" The real Rainbow Dash was back to frantically pacing, tossing her pink head and poufy mane with each lap of the library. "I'm stuck as Pinkie and Pinkie is stuck as me and there's no way AJ isn't gonna notice something strange when she falls on her face every time she tries to fly. Then she's gonna think that I'm just fooling around to get out of work and she's going to get mad, and it's not my fault cuz I really did want to help her this time but there's no way I could help her in this body because it doesn't have wings and you need wings if you're going to fly to the top of a barn and what if Pinkie and I are stuck like this forever and I never get to fly again and have to walk everywhere, or worse, <em>bounce<em> everywhere, and I don't even _like_ bouncing, and now I'll never get a chance to audition for the Wonderbolts and I was sure that they'd love my new double inside out loop and—"

"Rainbow!" Twilight cantered back and forth after the former pegasus, finally managing to get ahead of her, and grabbed her face between her hooves. "Stop! Look at me! You have to breathe or you'll pass out."

Rainbow blinked at her blankly for a moment, then complied, dragging in a huge breath before dropping to her haunches.

"I don't want to be an earth pony," she whimpered. "Nothing against Pinkie or Applejack, but I really, really, really like my wings."

"I know, and I promise you, I am going to figure out how to get them back. I just can't concentrate if you keep panicking and wearing a rut into the floor."

"Okay, okay." Rainbow took another big, shuddering breath and wiped her eyes, which had grown damp. "What can I do to help?"

Twilight smiled, relieved. "Well, for starters, I guess you could—"

"I'm _heeerrre!_" The door suddenly flew open and their friend Rarity pranced gracefully into the room.

Rainbow groaned, facehoofing again. "Ever think about putting a lock on that door?" she muttered.

"I am now," Twilight whispered back. Forcing a smile, she turned to Rarity. "So you are! Uh, may I ask why?"

Rarity raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow and gave a ladylike snort. "Our hooficure, of course. We're going to spend the afternoon at the spa together. Oh, hello, Pinkie Pie." She smiled sweetly at Rainbow Dash, who waved awkwardly, then turned back to Twilight. Catching the look of utter confusion on her friend's face, she gave a little pout and stamped a hoof delicately on the floor. "Oh, Twilight, don't tell me you forgot! I arranged this with you two weeks ago. I wanted to do it earlier, but you kept saying that it didn't fit into your schedule."

"Hooficure? Oh my gosh!" Twilight clapped a hoof to her forehead. "Was that today? No, it couldn't be today? I thought it was—" She galloped across the room and lifted a small book with her magic, rapidly turning the pages. "I know I had Spike write it down for me and I am sure that we were supposed to get together…oh, today." She chuckled sheepishly. "I must have lost track. I tend to do that whenever Spike's gone."

"You're not too busy, are you?" Rarity's pout deepened. "Because I already booked the time with the spa and I hate having to cancel at the last minute."

"Oh." Twilight glanced at Rainbow Dash. "Well, I was—"

"Oh please, Twilight!" Rarity sidled up to the purple unicorn and leaned against her, batting her eyes pleadingly. "Please! I've been looking forward to this for so long, and Celestia knows you could do with the pampering." She lifted a lock of Twilight's navy mane, clucked her tongue, and let it fall again. "They have this new rejuvenating shampoo treatment that would work _wonders_ for your mane!"

"Why? What's wrong with my mane?" Twilight yipped as Rainbow kicked her on the leg. "I mean, I don't know, Rarity, I'm working on a really difficult spell right now."

"Difficult _and important!_" Rainbow added.

"Right, and important. So, I'm really sorry, but I don't think I can get away right now."

"But it's just a couple of hours—it's good to take a break every now and then. It keeps you from getting wrinkles. Pinkie, tell her she needs to come!"

Taken by surprise, Rainbow stammered, "Uh, actually, she's right on the brink of a breakthrough and maybe she could reschedule for a later time?"

Rarity abruptly stepped away from Twilight, leaving her wobbling for balance, and approached Rainbow to stare at her intensely. The newly pink pony grinned awkwardly under the scrutiny, sweating a little as Rarity walked slowly around her, deep blue eyes narrowed. After a moment, she stopped and tapped a hoof to her chin.

"Are you feeling alright, Pinkie?"

"Huh? Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'm, uh, oki doki, uh, loki?"

Rarity's eyes narrowed even more. "Are you sure? You sound a little hoarse. I hope you aren't coming down with a cold, darling." She touched her hoof to Rainbow's forehead, lifting her bushy mane out of the way.

"A cold? No, I'm good."

"Hmm…I suppose. Maybe you need a little rest and relaxation too. I know how hard you work over at the bakery." She gasped, smiling. "Ideeaa! Why don't the three of us go to the spa together? I'm sure they'll have no trouble fitting you in, Pinkie. We'll all relax and talk and get pampered, and then we'll go out for lunch. It will be a perfect girls' day out!"

The two ponies hesitated, giving Rarity the perfect chance to slip into wheedling mode. "Oh please, please _please!_" she whined, wrapping her hooves around their necks and pulling them close. "Don't you think it would be such fun!"

"Well, I guess a couple of hours wouldn't hurt," Twilight began. Rainbow gave her a horrified look, but she quickly pressed on pointedly, "It would give me some time to clear my head so maybe I can get this spell worked out properly. And I always think better on a full stomach."

"Exactly! I knew you'd see things my way. Now how about you, Pinkie? My treat?"

Rainbow sighed heavily, then forced a bright, toothy smile. Since she couldn't get anywhere without Twilight's help, she might as well get a free lunch out of this whole mess. "Oki doki loki!"

* * *

><p>"Now here's the paint, Rainbow. Ah got plenty of brushes too. Ah'll take the lower level, as high as Ah can go, and you work down from the top. Sound good?"<p>

Pinkie Pie looked up at the wide expanse of wall, taking in the old, peeling paint that let the wood peek through in many places. The barn was several stories tall, with a loft in the highest level. Pinkie had been inside several times—jumping off the loft into the pile of hay below was great fun.

Now, however, the barn looked insanely tall and Applejack was expecting her to fly all the way to the top with a heavy paint can and brush in her mouth—and that sounded even more fun that jumping out of the hayloft!

"Sounds great!" she said, trying to make her voice sound like Rainbow Dash's. She bent down and grabbed a bucket of the bright red paint. Dashie had taught her what to do—how hard could it be to fly, really? Even baby pegasi like Pound Cake could do it. Okay, what was it again? You lifted your wings up together, then pushed down…

She began flapping her wings, giggling inwardly as the feathers locked together and created a downward thrust that lifted her several inches off the ground. She floated for a second, then dropped back to the ground.

"Huh?" She was supposed to be flying. What had she missed? "Oh, right!" Wings didn't work if you only flapped them once. Oblivious to the odd looks Applejack was sending her way, she tried again, flapping her wings repeatedly until she had risen several feet off the ground.

"Whoo hoo!" Exhilarated by the feeling, she simultaneously tried to turn a backflip in the air and shouted out loud, completely forgetting the bucket of paint she held in her mouth. As the pail turned over and the bright red paint dropped down towards Applejack's upturned, horrified face, she forgot to flap once again and plummeted back to the earth.

* * *

><p>Rainbow Dash leaned back gingerly and lifted a hind hoof, grimacing as a thick glop of warm mud dripped off her leg to plop back into the tub. She couldn't understand how lying in a tub of hot, wet dirt was supposed to be good for a pony, but to her left, Rarity was sighing in pure bliss.<p>

"Isn't this simply lovely?" she said, resting her towel-wrapped head on a pillow. "And it is going to work wonders for your coat—you'll swear you've never been so glossy."

"Glossy," Rainbow muttered. Her stomach rumbled, but it didn't look like they'd be getting to the promised lunch anytime soon. Once Rarity had been sure they were both coming, she'd gone all out, changing their simple hooficures and poni-pedis into a full treatment, complete with steam, mane conditioning, facials and, now, mudbaths. Their manes were wrapped in towels, their faces slathered with some kind of greenish goop, and they had cucumber slices over their eyes.

"Oh yes, positively glowing! And after this, we'll have our hooves done, and then maybe some hot rock treatment or massage…oh, and highlights! Some highlights would do wonders for your mane, Pinkie."

Rainbow gritted her teeth, knowing Pinkie would probably be delighted by the idea, but also very aware that every hour spent stuck in the spa was an hour that Twilight wasn't working on the spell to switch them back. Even now, lying in the mud, she was painfully aware of her missing wings and couldn't help wondering what Pinkie Pie was doing with them.

"That's very nice of you, Rarity," Twilight Sparkle murmured, sinking up to her chin in the mud. "But you've done so much for us already, and I really do have a lot of work to do back in the library and…ooh, what is that smell!" She nudged one cucumber slice away from her eye and watched the spa worker set a series of small candles around the room.

"Smells like…" Rarity sniffed the air, "…lavender and chamomile and, if I am not mistaken, a hint of sandalwood."

"It's wonderful!" Twilight sighed. "So calming."

Rainbow Dash breathed in, her nose filling with an overpoweringly floral aroma that made her want to sneeze. Gasping, she reached up to scratch her snout, forgetting that her hooves were covered in a thick, oozing layer of imported mud.

"Oh _yuuuck!_"

"Shh! Pinkie Pie, someponies are trying to relax," Rarity scolded gently. "I know you find it hard to sit still for any measurable length of time, but I promise you, if you just lie back and relax, you will feel like an entirely new pony!"

"New pony? Too late," Rainbow muttered. Going cross-eyed, she could see the line of mud streaking down her muzzle and wrinkled her nose in disgust. Instantly, her nostrils were flooded with the scent of lavender, chamomile, and just a hint of sandalwood. She sneezed, violently, three times in succession, once again forgetting the mud when she reached up to cover her snout. "Oh, for the love of pete!"

* * *

><p>"Rainbow! What in tarnation are you doin'!"<p>

Applejack was an unrecognizable blob, her pale orange coat completely covered in a thick layer of red paint that dripped from her ponytail and Stetson hat. She blinked and her green eyes became visible, looking utterly shocked.

"I'm sorry!" Pinkie struggled to untangle her legs and get to her hooves—uh oh, more bent primaries, Rainbow wasn't going to be happy at that—and hurried to the cowpony's side. "H-hold on a second, I'll help you!" Looking around frantically, she caught sight of the bucket again and rushed to pick it up. "Wait right there. I'll be right back!"

Leaving the painted pony, she galloped around the barn to the well in front of the orchard and pulled up a bucket of water. Sloshing its contents into her own pail, she hurried back to Applejack, who was mincing through the quickly drying paint and muttering under her breath. Rushing up to her friend, Pinkie tossed the entire bucket at her, drenching Applejack again.

The cowpony squawked, raising a hoof too late to cover her face. The water made her cough and sputter, but did little to wash away the paint, which stuck to her coat like glue.

"Uh, oops?" Pinkie said, grinning sheepishly. "Maybe I should get another bucket of water?"

Applejack yelped and jumped away, holding her hooves out. "No! No, it's alright! Uh, Ah'm just gonna go clean up. You stay, um, right there, okay, Rainbow?" She continued to skitter out of Pinkie's reach, then turned tail and galloped off towards the farmhouse, a trail of red-painted hoofprints following in her wake.

Pinkie sat on her haunches and pouted a little. She hadn't _meant_ to drop the paint—it was this silly, light-weight pegasus body. It just threw her off. And now Applejack was upset with her. She _had_ to figure out a way to make Applejack her friend again.

Pensively, she looked around, sure there was something she could do to help out—and then she spotted the unpainted barn.

Twenty minutes later, Applejack trotted hesitantly across the yard, her orange coat clean and damp from the bath. As she turned the corner around the barn, she raised her eyes and fidgeted with the Stetson on her mane. "Hey Rainbow, lissen. Ah've been thinkin', and maybe Ah'll just work on the bottom half of the barn and get Fluttershy to help me with the top tomorrow. Ah think you're catchin' a cold or somethin' cuz…" She stopped short, her eyes widening as they took in her barn, now coated with thick layers of paint from top to bottom.

Somehow, someway, Rainbow Dash had painted the entire thing herself in less than a half hour—and somehow she had turned the cans of plain red paint into a giant, brightly hued mural of the entire Apple family in the orchard during applebucking season.

"Wh-what? How in the hay…?"

"All done!" Rainbow appeared out of nowhere, her pale blue coat dotted with all colors of paint, a brush held in her mouth. Beaming happily at Applejack, she dropped the brush into an empty can, then hopped past the orange pony to the path back to Ponyville. "Hope you like it! Gotta go now. See ya later!"

Applejack's mouth hung open as she turned from the beautiful mural of herself with her granny, brother, and little sister to watch the pegasus hop down the lane, wings fluttering with each bounce. Utterly dumbfounded, she shook her head and bent to clean up the brushes.

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry, Rainbow, but I couldn't really say no." Glossy and well-groomed, with polished hooves and highlighted manes, Twilight and Rainbow Dash waved goodbye to Rarity at the café and headed back to the library. Trotting through the streets of town, Twilight glanced at the pink pony walking beside her and smiled apologetically. "Rarity's been asking me to go to the spa with her for a month now and I'm always too busy."<p>

"Sure, busy arranging books and writing lists and arranging lists—but don't you think putting your friends back in their own bodies is more important than massages and mudbaths!"

"Shh!" The unicorn looked around nervously to see if anypony had heard, but nopony was paying them any attention. She breathed a sigh of relief. "I…I'm sorry. I know. I should have spent the day trying to figure out how to turn you back, but I just couldn't turn her down again. Besides," she nudged Rainbow with her shoulder, throwing her off balance for a second, "something good may have come of it."

"Yeah," Rainbow's voice took on a singsong quality as she rolled her eyes. "I have _highlights_ now."

"No. I feel a lot more relaxed now. I'm ready to buckle down and figure out this spell!"

"Well, that's good, cuz here comes Pinkie…and…she's…I mean, I'm…bouncing."

A blue pegasus was hopping down the street towards them, waving and calling out greetings to every pony she passed. Seeing them, she grinned brightly and broke into a gallop.

"You don't think she _hopped_ like that all the way from Sweet Apple Acres, do you?"

"Well, you said she couldn't fly yet."

"B-b-but _hopping?_ I have a reputation, Twilight. I'm _way_ too cool for hopping!"

Twilight ducked her head sheepishly under her friend's mortified glower. "Don't forget that I owe you _so_ much for this! I promise—I will make it up to you!"

"Hey guys! I'm back. I finished helping Applejack with her barn and it looks absolutely, positively, absotively _amazing!_" Pinkie arrived in a blur of blue and rainbow colors, bouncing in a circle around the two of them. "There was a bit of a problem with these wings and a bucket of paint, and then a bucket of water, and then _mmm mmm mmmm!"_

Rainbow slapped her hoof over Pinkie's—her—mouth, cutting off the babbling. "Shh!" she hissed. "Shh! _I_ don't talk that way! Do you want everypony looking over here wondering why Rainbow Dash is bouncing about like a bunny?"

Pinkie settled down, looking mournfully over the pink hoof on her mouth. "Sowwy!" she managed to squeak. Her eyes widened and suddenly she was standing beside Rainbow, staring intensely at her mane.

"Oooh! My…I mean, _your_ mane looks so pretty!"

Rainbow slowly lowered her hoof and stood for the scrutiny. "Yeah, Rarity treated me and Twilight to a day at the spa. That's, uh, that's okay, right?"

"It's so shiny, and soft, and curly and…I _love it!_"

"Yeah, good, great. Well, all of our obligations are done and we managed to trick both Applejack and Rarity. Twilight's feeling loads better too, so let's get back to the library so she can fix this and I can have my wings back."

"Right!" Twilight wrapped her hooves around their necks, giving both mares a tight hug. "Let's go! I can do this!"

* * *

><p>"I can't do this!" Twilight frantically waved smoke out of her way as Rainbow Dash dumped a cup of water on the burning sheet of parchment. Groaning, the purple unicorn turned away from the table and sat down on the floor, hiding her eyes with her hooves. "It's impossible!"<p>

Grimacing, Rainbow swept the dripping, blackened pile of sludgy notes into a waste bin before joining Pinkie Pie at Twilight's side. The now-pegasus was gently stroking Twilight's mane and hugging her comfortingly.

"It's okay, Twilight. I know you can do this. It's just not easy-peasey like a lot of your other spells."

"Yeah, and you're not going to figure out anything if you keep getting all panicked."

"Panicked?" Twilight looked up, glancing jerkily from side to side. Her eyes were wide, the pupils shrunk, and her previously smooth and glossy mane was standing up erratically from all the times she had run her hooves through it. "You think I'm getting panicked? Oh, I'm not getting panicked! Not at all! Why would I need to panic? Not because I just switched the bodies of two of my best friends and can't figure out how to put them right again. Nope, _that's_ no reason to panic. Not at all!" She giggled manically and pointed to the table, where several wisps of smoke were still rising from the scorched wood. "I nearly set the library on fire. Twice!"

"Actually, it was three times." Rainbow indicated a section of shelves near the ceiling that were now cleared of books. "You're forgetting about _that_ spell."

"Oh yes, right—Spike's going to wonder why we don't have a section on Equestrian Tax Law anymore."

Rainbow shrugged indifferently. "I doubt anypony will miss it. What they _will_ miss is Equestria's Best Young Flyer, not to mention the baker who gave Ponyville the triple chocolate truffle upside-down banana berry cup-a-cookie."

"Ooh! I forgot all about those! They were _good_, weren't they, with the berry sauce and the dark chocolate chunks and the white chocolate chips and the upside-down bananas? I should definitely make them again."

"That's not the point!" Rainbow snapped, exasperated, then tipped her head to the side with a guilty grin. "Um, yeah, you should _definitely_ make them again, with more berry sauce this time. But, Twilight, what I'm saying is you can't give up. You just can't. I _know_ you can do this."

"Yeah!" Pinkie added, going back to the table to wipe it down with a cloth. She set up another quill, ink, and more parchment. "Sure, you set the library on fire three times and you turned that poor plant into…" She looked up to a pile of drinking straws where a potted fern had once stood, her lips trembling.

"I think what Pinkie is saying is that there are always mistakes when you're learning. I've flown into a lot of stuff and she's probably burnt a lot of cookies." She shrugged. "Didn't stop us, did it?"

Twilight sniffled and took a deep, steadying breath. Slowly, her eyes came back into focus. "Those cookies sound really good. If you make them again, I'll have to try them." She pushed herself to her hooves, squaring her shoulders and smoothing down her mane. "Okay, I'm going to do this—"

Pinkie and Rainbow both perked up and exchanged delighted smiles. "Yay!"

"—but not tonight."

"What!"

Dumbfounded, the two sat and stared at her. Keeping her head down, Twilight trotted to the table to collect her books and parchment.

"You're right, Rainbow. Practice makes perfect. And what I need here is a little more practice. So I'm thinking we need to stop for tonight. If I have a bit more time to study and try out the spell, I'm sure I'll have you back to normal by tomorrow."

"T-tomorrow?"

"Absolutely. I just need to do some reading and figure out a couple of declensions. Tomorrow, I'll have you back in your own bodies where you belong!"

Pinkie was the first to nod. "Oki doki loki. You just want to get a good nights' sleep before you try something so important again. We understand, right, Rainbow Dash?"

"I…I guess so." Rainbow rubbed her neck, not thrilled by the idea, but realizing that she was tired too. A whole day had gone by and she hadn't had a single nap. It would be nice to just go home to her own bed and... "Wait! How am I supposed to get home?"

Twilight and Pinkie looked at her, confused, so she pointed to her wingless back, then up at the ceiling.

"I live in a cloud! How am I supposed to get up there without wings? And even if I _could_ get there, earth ponies can't walk on clouds. I'd fall right through! I—I can't even go home! But Tank's up there and he's gonna be hungry by now and wondering where I am. I can't leave him by himself overnight." Her previous calm evaporated as she thought of her loyal little tortoise sitting up in her cloud home, waiting for her to come back for dinner.

"It's okay, Dashie!" Pinkie jumped to her side and patted her back to calm her down. "We'll just switch places for tonight. I'll go to your place and you'll go to mine." She laughed and looked over her shoulder, fluttering her feathers. "I've never slept in a cloud before—it'll be fun! Like a sleepover, only not. And I'll take good care of Tank, as long as you take care of Gummy for me."

"But, Pinkie…"

"Come on, don't be such a gloomy, doomy Dashie. It's an adventure!"

"I…" Rainbow sighed. "Okay. An adventure." She looped a hoof around Pinkie's neck and turned back to Twilight. "Tomorrow?"

Twilight Sparkle nodded and went through the steps of a Pinkie Promise. "Tomorrow!"

* * *

><p>Okay, Okay...I know, I have been remiss as an author regarding this story. I don't even want to look and see how long it has been since I posted the first chapter. But here it is, an update. A long update. An update that I hope made you laugh and chortle and smile and forget that I put this on the backburner while I worked on Betrothed and Betrayed and made chainmaille jewelry for Everfree Northwest, which was simply AMAZING!<p>

I'm also working on my travel blog, Travels with Dashie (check it out in a google search and follow me!)

I am still pondering the ending for this story, but have come up with enough to make a few funny chapters to come, so hopefully the updates will come faster now. And for those reading Betrothed and Betrayed as well, you can probably expect an update on that within a week, if not sooner.

Please keep reading and be patient with me. And please check out my books on Kindle and Nook, published under Tina Moss.

Oki Doki Loki, see you soon!


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